The Pulpit Commentary — Colossians — Section 94

tho moterinl world which wae the chief spiritu!\I completeness; but fmm n. dilfcrcnt prnctieal tenet of the e1tme school ( comp. sto.ndpoint, and in o. m1mncr cliffcrcn t l"rom notes on eh. i. 22 ond ii. 23). tho.t of the Pharisaic J udaizers of G:ilatia. Vor. 10.-And (bccnuee) ye are in him and of Acts xv. 1. By the J,,ttcr it wna made oomplete; or,fulfilled (Eph. i. 3, 7-11, preached as matter of Law and external re- 23; iii. HI, 19; iv. 13; Phil. iv. 19; Go!. quirement, and so became the critical point iu iii. 14, 2! ; v. 1, '; 1 Cor. i. 30; ii. 2). the decision between tho opposing principloil A complete Christ makes hie people com- of " faith " and " works." By the philoso- plete; his pleroma is our pT.erosis. Finding phical school it Wll.B enjoined as matter oj the whole fulness of God brought within symbolic mO'l'al efficiency. So Philo speo.ki our reach and engnged in our behalf (Phil. of circumcision (' On the Migration of Abro.- ii. 7; Mfltt. xx. 28) iu him, we need not ho.m,' § 16) e.s "setting forth the excision of resort elsewhere to supply our spiritual 1111 the pleaenres and passions, and the needs (Phil. iv. rn). " Iu him" is the pri• destruction of impious vain opinion'' (see mary predicate ( dee Alford, Ellicott, against also his treatise ' On Circumcision '). From 111eyer: comp. ver. 3): "Ye are in him" this point of view, baptism is the Christian is the assumption (Rom. viii. 1 ; xvi. 7) ; circumcision, the new symbolic expression of " (ye a.re) made complete " is the inference. the morn! change which St. Paul and hi3 (On the verb 1rll.11p&w (the be.sis of pleroma), opponents alike deemed necessary, though used in pe1·fect pe.rtic1 pie of abiding result, they understood it in o. different sense from seo notes, eh. i. 9, 19.) This completeness him ( see vers. 20-23). In this respect the includes the furnishing of men with all Christia.n is al.ready complete, for his c;rcum- the.t is required for their present and final cision took pince in the stripping o:!f of the salvation as individuals (vers. 11-15; eh. body of the flesh, in the oiroumcision of Christ i. 21, 22, 28), and for •their collective per- (eh. iii. 5, 8, !J: Eph. iv. 22-25; Rom. vi. 6; fection as forming the Church, the body of vii. 18-25; xiii. 12; 1 Pet. ii. 1; iv. 1, 2). Christ (vers. 2, 19; eh. i. 19; Eph. i. 23; The inserted "of the sins" is an ancient v. 26, 27); for this twofold completeness, gloss. 'A1r-,:c-ov,11s, a double compound, comp. Eph. iv. 12-16. Who is the Rend found only in this Epistle (see corresponding of all prinoipality e.nd dominion ( vers. verb in ver. 15 ; eh. iii. 9), denotes both 15, 18; eh. i.16; Eph. i. 21; Phil. ii.10, 11; "stripping off" o.nd" putting awo.y." "The 1 Cor. xv. 24; Heb. i. 6, 14; 1 Pet. iii. 22). stripping off of the body" wo.s the ideal (On " principality," etc., see note, eh. i. 16.) of the philosophical o.scctics (see note on The Colossians were being taught to replace "body," ver. 23, u.nd quotations from Philo). or supplement Christ's offices by those of The opostle adds " of the flesh ; " i.e. of tha angel-powers (see notes, vers. 15, 18). body in so far aa it was the body of the flesh Philo (' Concerning Dreams,' i. §§ 22, 23) (vers. 18, 18, 23; eh. iii. 5). " The flesh" writes thus of the nngels: "F1·ee from all (in eh. i. 22 that which Christ had put on ; bodily encumbra.uco, endowed with larger hero that which the Christian puts ~ff: and diviner intellect, they are lieutenants comp. Rom. viii. 3) is "the flesh of sin," of of the All-ruler, eyes nnd ears of the great Rom. viii. 8; Gal. v. 19 ; Eph. ii. 3, etc. King. Philosophers in. general call them "The body," while identified with this demons (611.iµ.oves); the eacred Scripture "flesh," is" the body of sin" and "of death" angels, for they report (Buryyt/1./1.ovrr,) the (Rom. vi. 6; vii. 2! ; see Meyer, Godet, or injunctions of the. Father to his children, Beet); sin inhabits it, clothes itself with it, o.nd the wants of the children to their Father. o.nd presents itself to us in its form; and . . . Angels, the Divine words, walk about this being the norrual condition of unre- (comp. 2 001·. vi. l(j) in the souls of those generate human nature, the sinful principle who h!\ve not yet completely wll.Bbed off the is noture.lly called the flesh. So" the (bodily) ( olcl) lifo, foul and stainetl through their members" become "the members lhat are cumbersome bodies, making them bright upon the earth," employed in the pursuit of to the eyes of virtue." In such a strain lust nnd greed, till they become pmctic,illy the Colossfon "philosopher" may ho..e one with these vices (eh. iii. 5, see not,,; been to.lking. But if Christ is the Mo.ker also Rom. vii. 5, 23). Yet " !ho bouy" nud o.nd Lord of these invisible powers ( eh. "tho (sinful) flesh," whilo in the natnral i. 15, 16), ond we are in him, then we mast mau ono in practice, nro in principle <lis- no longer look to them ns our ea viours. tiuguislrnble (ver. 23: comp. eh. i. 22), and Vet·. 11.-In wh~m o.leo ye we1·0 oironm- sopa.r..ble (Rom. vi. 12). The dclivcrnnco oised, with e. ciroumoision not wronght by from t!10 physical acts nllll lmbits of tho ohl ho.ndo (Eph. ii.11; Phil. iii. 3; Glll. v. 2-6; sinful life, experienced by him who is " in vi. 12-15; Rom. ii. 25-29: iv. 9-12; Christ" (ver. 10; Rom. viii. 1-c!; 2 Cor, 1 Cor. vii. 18; Acts xv. 1, 5; Deut. x:u, 6). v. 17), is" the circumcision 1tccording lo tho Circumcision wus insisted ou by the new Christ," or here more pointeclly "of Clirist" 'philosophical " tct,clwr llS ncccssn.ry to -a real an,1 co:11plde, insteml of ,, 1-,~clt,,l  88 'l'HE EPI:3'l'LE TO 'l.'HE COLOSSI.ANS. Leu. tr. 1-23.